SC rejects pleas seeking 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips

• The Supreme Court has rejected all petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of votes polled on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. It, however, provided options for election candidates to seek EVM verification in case they suspect any anomaly.
• The Supreme Court’s two-judge bench, including Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, have made a decision in the ‘EVM case’ of Association for Democratic Reforms vs Election Commission of India and Another.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• The ADR, a non-governmental organization, had requested that the voting system by EVM should either be removed altogether or significantly changed.
• The petitioners argued that if EVMs were to continue, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slip should be handed to the voter so that they could physically cast it into the ballot box, or all VVPAT slips in the country should be counted alongside the electronic tally.
• Presently, only the electronic counts from five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment are verified against the tally given by VVPAT slips.
• Additionally, the petitioners challenged the rule that only allows the voter to call for physical verification if they feel that there is a discrepancy between their vote as cast and the VVPAT slip. They argued that any elector, not just such a voter, should be able to call for a recount.

ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS (ADR):

• The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was founded in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.
• Since 2003, ADR and the National Election Watch have conducted Election Watches for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Elections, as well as most State Assembly Elections in the country.